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Hi all

Looking for help tracing my great grandfather from 1906 onwards, Born in Great Yarmouth 1869/70, married to Mary Ellen Gibbs in October 1891, in Marsden Huddersfield, 7 children all together, my grandmother being the last, (2 died in infancy), resident 1896 Hill Top, Marsden, residence Marsden 1901, 1903 &1904, my grandmother Nellie Foster born 10/02/1905, then picked him up alive for the last time on 10/02/1906, my grannies baptism.

He then croped upon my great Auntie Annies wedding banns in 1925, "presumed deceased". His occupations was miner/tunneler, worked on the Marsden Tunnels. Have searched miners deaths, and war deaths but nothing, but being "presumed deceased", in 1925, would have me believing he left the family home and never went back.

Am searching wakefield prison records at the moment, and their is a George Foster there jailed in 1906, but needing more work on that, one thing I need to find out is how to access court records online, so I can look better into this.

I now live hundreds of miles away from Huddersield so Library's not much use to me.

Any help would be great as to ideas of where to go next.

cheers in advance

Welcome to genesreunited, Nigel.

Ken and Sarah Lister have a lot of information about this family on Ancestry.

Are you in contact with them?

You probably have this, the 1911 Census, but we don't so I'm posting this as information for the helpers

Mary Ellen shows herself as Married on the 1911 .......... doesn't know if he's alive or not, lying to save face, or true is the question :-)

1911 Census

Name: Mary Ellen Foster
Age in 1911: 41
Estimated birth year: abt 1870
Relation to Head: Head
Gender: Female
Birth Place: Marsden, Yorkshire, England
Civil Parish: Marsden
Search Photos: Search for 'Marsden' in the UK City, Town and Village Photos collection
County/Island: Yorkshire-West Riding
Country: England
Street address: Badger Gate Marsden
Marital Status: Married
Occupation: Woollen Feeder
Registration district: Huddersfield
Registration District Number: 495
Sub-registration district: Slaithwaite
ED, institution, or vessel: 8
Piece: 26198

Mary Ellen Foster 41
Lizzie Foster 18
Mary Foster 13
Jane Foster 10
Annie Foster 8
Nellie Foster 6

from image:-

Married 19 years

Nigel .........

Do you know for certain sure that he was alive at the time of your grandmother's baptism??

His name on the Parish Register is not definitive proof that he was alive and present ....... it only means that he was the baby's father.

I'm just trying to make certain of the time line that we might have to search

Sylvia- the address on the Nellie's baptism was Wood Bottom- a George Foster appears at that address on the 1906 electoral register.

Ken Lister & my grandmother share the same great great grandfather, and we are regularly in touch, different forums have different ideas & people, hence the post.


There is no evidence so far of death, so therefore presuming he was alive and died some time later, maybe without wanting to be found. No evidence of any contact with the family after 1906.

The 1911 census I have thanks, Badger Gate, The Hill, and Nathans (Nathans was about 1915), where the fosters lived are all within a short distance of each other, and all within view of each other, the large percentage of the people in that area all worked in the mills, George did not, so he would of been a bit of an outsider, in a relatively small community.

I have had contact with the Grandson of a family that lived at Nathans, and he tells me it that the men were hard drinking, and his Grandfather was in the pub, less than half a mile away, every evening, sat & sun lunch.

Just a small correction Nigel- Annie's marriage was 1928, and George (presumed deceased) occupation was 'teamer'.

Of the children's baptisms that I can see he was listed as labourer/ carter.

1891 on his marriage certificate he is a miners labourer, living at 10 Tunnel Road, Marsden, at that time he was working on the Marsden tunnel with his Father in Law & brother in Law.

1901 census excavator (navvy)

Teamer is not a term I have heard of before seeing the 1928 wedding banns, but assuming his digging occupations are correct, it could be the term for a group of people working together.

Old Occupations site:

Teamster / Teamer / Teamer Man - Driver of a team horses used for hauling

(I suppose they used horses to haul things in and out of a mine or a tunnel so that could fit with what you have.)

Dea x

For helpers' reference, this is the mention of Wakefield Prison.
YOB a bit out, but POB correct - looks like a good possibility:


George Foster
in the West Yorkshire, England, Prison Records, 1801-1914
Name: George Foster
Birth Year: abt 1877
Birth Place: Yarmouth
Age: 29
Event Date: 15 May 1906
Prison or Quarter Session: HMP Wakefield
Location: Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England
Sentence: Other

I expect you've considered these workhouse admissions? No place of birth given, though, so no way of knowing if either of them is him:


George Foster (he's a porter, and destitute)

in the London, England, Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records, 1659-1930
Name: George Foster
Birth Date: 1868
Admission Age: 47
Admission Date: 13 Jul 1915
Record Type: Admission
Borough: Westminster
Parish or Poor Law Union: St Marylebone
Place: London, England
Title: Northumberland Street Workhouse Register, 1915


George Foster
in the London, England, Workhouse Admission and Discharge Records, 1659-1930
Name: George Foster
Birth Date: abt 1871
Admission Age: 36
Admission Date: 16 Dec 1907
Discharge Date: 24 Dec 1907
Record Type: Admission and Discharge
Borough: Tower Hamlets
Parish or Poor Law Union: Stepney
Place: London, England
Title: Workhouses and Institutions, 1907-1908

That one's a groom (might fit with having been a teamster ???) , and was admitted from "Casual Ward" because of rheumatism.

I don't think you can access court records online, but West Yorkshire Archive Service, where the Wakefield records are kept, according to the National Archives website, have a research service. However, because of moving premises, etc, facilities are limited at the moment:

West Yorkshire Archive Service, Wakefield

Registry of Deeds
Newstead Road
Wakefield
England
WF1 2DE

Telephone: 01924 305 980

Fax: 01924 305 983

Email: [email protected]

Website:

http://www.archives.wyjs.org.uk/

Member of CARN scheme
Research Service

WYAS, Wakefield is moving to new premises in early 2017. To prepare for this move the opening hours are changing from 1 April 2015

The Archives will be closed to the public the third full week of each calendar month, starting 20-24 April 2015. Monday evening sessions will also stop


Research service - though maybe not much available at present:

http://www.archives.wyjs.org.uk/archives-ask-the-experts.asp

https://eshop.wyjs.org.uk/products.asp?cat=18

thanks for that, workhouse ones are to difficult to follow one way or another, had considered him moving back to Yarmouth, am cosidering a tactical approach to asking for a death cert from www.gov.uk/research-family-history as you are refunded if they find nothing.

For the sentence in Wakefield prison the conviction was assualt, the sentence was 1 months hard labour, discharged 14/06/1906, number of previous convictions 4.

Nigel ..............

I did preface my posting of the 1911 Census with the following comment, emphasis added now to make perfectly clear why I did it ...........

------
You probably have this, the 1911 Census, but WE DON"T so I'm posting this as information for the helpers
-----

It's just something that we do on this site when the person requesting help does not provide it ........ otherwise we all go searching just to ensure we have got it correct.

After all, you know this family, we do not, and we have to get our heads round it.

The place of birth may, of course, mean it's not him, if it really means Yarmouth, as opposed to Great Yarmouth.

Are you sure that isn't Tamworth?...(other Prison entries also for that, Miner, notes all give Pontefract for Place)

(who are Witnesses on 1891 Marriage?)

Chris :)

In 1891 and 1901 censuses it is clearly Norfolk Great Yarmouth for birthplace.

Witnesses are Ernest Firth and Tho. C. Brown, guessing Tho is an abbreviation